A forum for Ohio educators, sharing thoughts regarding their health care and pension system (STRS Ohio). Researcher John Curry manages a clearinghouse of related e-mails, articles, announcements, etc. His daily mailings include many items that do not make it to this blog. Contact John (curryfeezer@yahoo.com) if you wish to be on his e-mail list. Kathie Bracy: kbb47@aol.com.

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

RH Jones: Electronic meetings will save time, money and maybe lives

March 14, 2006

To all:

Justine Bachman of the Associated Press reports that: "A survey suggests that they rank among the most inefficient exercises we perform. The typical weekly staff meeting lasts 50 minutes, with people in the survey saying they probably could shave 16 minutes from the total if they could eliminate the inefficiencies. The 130 responses included workers in a range of organizations, from Intel Corp. to the U.S. Navy, to George Washington University. The survey was conducted between November and January for Group Systems Corp., a software company based in Broomfield, Colo.."

This backs up my thoughts that I expressed to the CORE Group and Ann Hanning at the CORE meeting this March. Lets do our meetings at CORE, ORTA, OEA, OEA-R, OFT, NEOEA, NEOEA-R , and at the STRS, electronically saving both time and money. I have been advocating this for years; ever since 5-teachers die in a car wreck going to an NEOTA meeting several years back. Retired and active teachers know how wasteful staff and administrative meetings were, and still are.

STRS, NEA, OEA, AFT and all other groups would benefit by curtailing the expenses of trips. The money saved is most certainly needed in these difficult times for education in America.

About Me

A graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and the Baylor University School of Music, I am a professional symphony musician by background. I am also a retired elementary classroom teacher (nonmusic), having taught in the Alliance (OH) City Schools 2-1/2 years and the Columbus Public Schools 30 years. My first job was as harp instructor at The University of Texas; currently I am a Lecturer in Harp at The University of Mount Union. As a retired educator and a life member of a number of professional organizations, including the Ohio Retired Teachers Association and the Ohio Education Association-Retired, I also worked through CORE (Concerned Ohio Retired Educators, which officially disbanded 9/20/12) to help bring about badly needed reform in our teachers retirement system, STRS Ohio. My e-mail: kbb47@aol.com.